The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued notice to the Director General of Police, Maharashtra on a plea alleging false implication and custodial torture of Ghanshyam Singh, Assistant Vice President, Distribution of the Republic Media Network, following his arrest in connection with the TRP scam case.
The NHRC, acting on a complaint by Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director of Republic Media Network, Arnab Goswami, observed:
"... there are allegations of physical torture, false implication and mental harassment of the office bearer of an eminent Media House (Republic TV network), which cannot be acceptable in a democratic country like India."
The NHRC also issued notice to the Director-General/ Inspector General of Prisons, Maharashtra. Further, it directed the submission of Singh's initial health screening report at the time of his admission to jail and his medical treatment record during his stay in the custody, within 4 weeks.
The complaint by Goswami sought urgent intervention of NHRC alleging that Singh's human rights were violated while in jail.
In the backdrop of these allegations, Goswami urged the NHRC to protect the members of news agencies whose crew was allegedly tortured in the custody of the Mumbai Police in connection with its probe into the TRP scam.
Ghanshyam Singh was allegedly picked up from his home arbitrarily on November 10, 2020 in connection with the TRP scam case, even though the FIR neither named him, nor Republic TV network. Singh was granted bail on December 5, 2020, by the Mumbai Sessions Court.
As per the complaint before the NHRC, Singh was subjected to "extreme mental cruelty when he refused to comply with the premeditated script of the police."
"He was taken into a room laden with a tool to torture, where he was brutally and barbarically whipped with a chakki belt, forced to extend his hands, and then lashed by a thick injury-inflicting chakki belt multiple times on both the hands," the complaint added.
It was further alleged that a senior police officer was instructing that Singh be physically tortured while coercing him to make false statements to incriminate himself and his organisation.
The plea stated that "as part of a witch-hunt against the Republic Media Network and in an attempt to fix investigations in a prejudged manner, all semblance of due process has been shunned and devious means of torture are being used."